Verse Forms - the Rispetto

The Rispetto*

Basic features & history of the verse form:

Number of lines	8
Structure / divisions	Two quatrains
Rhyme scheme	abab / ccdd
Meter	In English, often tetrameter
Refrain line or lines	No
Time / place of origin	15th-century Italy (Ernest H. Wilkins views the rispetto as having evolved from the Sicilian strambotto)
Medieval / Renaissance poets associated with this form	Various Tuscan poets, Gascoigne, Mary Sidney Herbert
Examples written in English by or before —	16th century (Gascoigne, Herbert)

An example of a rispetto:

From Gascoigne's Lullaby
by George Gascoigne (c. 1534-1577)

1 (a) Sing lullaby, as women do,

2 (b) Wherewith they bring their babes to rest;

3 (a) And lullaby can I sing to,

4 (b) As womanly as can the best.

5 (c) With lullaby they still the child,

6 (c) And if I be not much beguil'd,

7 (d) Full many wanton babes have I,

8 (d) Which must be still'd with lullaby.

* In English, the rispetto is usually used as a stanza in a longer poem; for instance, Gascoigne's rispetto, above, forms the first of the poem's six stanzas. While there may have been poets writing in English during this period who used the rispetto form for complete poems, I do not know of any examples.

A Brief Guide to Some Medieval and Renaissance Verse Forms